4 doctors suspended for a month over negligence in treatment

In the wake of alleged negligence in treatment that led to amputation of a leg of a 11-year-old boy, the Delhi Medical Council today suspended registration certificates of four resident doctors – two each of Hindu Rao and Safdarjang Hospital – for a month.

According to DMC officials, on May 1 last year, a 2.5-inch long piece of glass had pierced the boy’s left leg, while he was playing in his neighbourhood at Rana Pratap Bagh and remained stuck inside.

He was first taken to a quack, who dressed the wound without any diagnostic investigation and the piece of glass remained there.

“As the child shrieked in pain, his parents took him to Hindu Rao Hospital on May 2. The doctors on emergency duty again dressed the wound and discharged him even as the x-ray clearly showed the presence of the glass piece inside the skin.

“As the pain did not subside, the boy was again taken to Hindu Rao hospital on May 3 the doctors removed the glass piece but then it had already led to an infection in the wounded arteries,” DMC registrar Dr Girish Tyagi said.

After some days, the boy was referred to Safdarjung hospital where the doctors did not admit him and further referred him to a vascular surgeon.

Next month, the boy was taken to a private hospital in Meerut where the doctors amputated his left leg to save him as the infection had turned life-threatening, Tygai said.

When the DMC held an inquiry into the incident, the four doctors could not give any satisfactory response in the matter following which they have been barred from practising for the next one month.